What does Google say about SEO?

What happens when Googlebot consistently misses your pages if the URL never changes?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★★

Googlebot uses URLs to locate different pages or views. If the application does not change the URL during navigation between views, Googlebot will only see the homepage and nothing else.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Pagination & Structure Local Search

Can JavaScript really manage the entire lifecycle of a Single Page App for SEO?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★

Single-page applications use JavaScript to control the lifecycle of the page. JavaScript is used to create the HTML that makes up the page and to load additional content as users navigate to different parts of the application.

Domain Age & History Content JavaScript & Technical SEO

How can you prevent indexing errors linked to code paths that Googlebot might reject?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★★

It's essential to ensure that all code paths are covered to avoid problematic scenarios. For instance, one should not assume that certain features (like geolocation) will always be available. Googlebot, in particular, rejects geolocation requests.

Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Local Search International SEO

How can you ensure your single-page app is crawlable by Google without losing its indexing?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★★

For Googlebot to access the different views of a single-page app, it is necessary to use the History API and appropriate link markup with href attributes to expose the views as URLs in the links.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing JavaScript & Technical SEO Links & Backlinks Domain Name

Why does Google emphasize unique titles and meta descriptions for each view?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★★

It's important to have specific titles and meta descriptions for each view rather than a generic title and description for all. This improves visibility in search results and helps users find specific products or categories.

Content E-commerce AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Why does sending a HTTP 200 on your errors sabotage your crawl budget?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★★

HTTP status codes help Googlebot and browsers determine how to handle a response. In single-page apps, the server no longer directly handles errors, but it is crucial to return the correct HTTP status codes rather than an HTTP 200 for all situations,...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security AI & SEO

How should you properly handle HTTP error codes in a single-page app?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★★

To properly manage errors in a single-page app, the server must be configured to respond with an appropriate error code for specific URLs (for example, /not-found returns a 404, /maintenance returns a 500), and then use JavaScript to redirect to the ...

Domain Age & History AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Do JavaScript redirections to error pages really trigger an error signal for Googlebot?

Martin Splitt Oct 14, 2020 ★★

When JavaScript redirects to an error URL configured with the correct HTTP status code, it signals to browsers and Googlebot that the page is redirecting to another URL that is a real error.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing HTTPS & Security JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name Redirects

Should You Copy the Architecture and Menu of Major Sites Like Amazon to Succeed in SEO?

John Mueller Oct 12, 2020 ★★★

A user explained on Twitter to John Mueller that he was considering implementing the same 3-level menu on his site as Amazon's and asked if it was a good idea. The Googler's response: "Unless you are Amazon, I don't think you can reuse the same thing...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Pagination & Structure Social Media

Does Google really exclude all duplicate pages from its index?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★★

Excluded pages are not indexed and will not appear in Google. Either Google believes this is your intention, or it is the right decision. For example, a page with a noindex directive (your choice) or a page that is a duplicate of another page (Google...

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing

Do technical errors really block your pages from being indexed?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★★

Errors prevent pages from being indexed. Pages with errors will not appear on Google, which can lead to a loss of traffic for your website.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing

Can you really index a noindex page through a sitemap?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★★

If you submit a page via a sitemap but it contains a noindex directive, you will receive an error. All these cases would prevent the page from appearing in search results.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Search Console

Why is robots.txt not enough to block the indexing of your pages?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★★

If you want to block a page from search results, robots.txt is not the best method to prevent indexing. Instead, you should use a noindex directive or require authentication to view the page.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO

Why does Google choose to exclude certain pages by marking them as duplicates?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★

Excluded pages have not been indexed and will not appear in Google. For instance, the page may be a duplicate of another page, which is at Google's discretion.

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing

Should you really use the URL Inspection Tool to reindex a modified page?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★★

If you have made changes to a page and want to ask Google to reindex it, use the 'Request Indexing' function available in the URL Inspection Tool.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO Domain Name Search Console

How can you verify which version of your page Google has actually indexed?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★

In the Coverage section of the URL inspection tool, you'll find out whether the page is included in Google's index or if another version has been chosen as canonical.

Domain Age & History Crawl & Indexing Domain Name Search Console

How does Google actually detect errors in your structured data?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★

If your page is not correctly marked up with structured data, the inspection will return an error detailing the missing or incorrect values.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Search Console

Does Google really rely on real-world data to assess Core Web Vitals?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★★

The Core Web Vitals report shows the performance of your pages based on real user data (field data). The report is based on three metrics: LCP, FID, and CLS.

Domain Age & History Web Performance Search Console

Why are your pages disappearing from the Core Web Vitals report in the Search Console?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★

If a page does not have a minimum amount of reporting data for one of the Core Web Vitals metrics, it is omitted from the report. Therefore, you probably won’t see all your pages in this report.

Domain Age & History Web Performance Search Console

Should you really use Lighthouse before every production deployment?

Daniel Waisberg Oct 06, 2020 ★★

You might also want to check tools like Lighthouse before deploying changes in production to assess your page performance.

Domain Age & History E-commerce Web Performance Search Console